How to Save Money on Your Homestead!
Knowing how to save money on your homestead is a great way to become more self-reliant and save for the future.
Are you wondering how to make ends meet? Do you spend time searching for ways to make extra cash from your homestead? I’ve been there, believe me! I’ve researched ways of earning money on a small farm or homestead. I enjoy reading posts with great ideas for doing just that! But this post isn’t about earning money…it’s about saving money.
Check out my post How to Make Money from Your Homestead – 101 Ideas to Earn an Income
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A Penny Saved is Better Than a Penny Earned!
It’s great to earn money from your homestead. Many homesteaders have found ways to earn their living this way! However, after a certain point, I believe it’s better to save money than it is to earn more money.
We pay income tax on every penny we earn. Once we get to a certain income, it may be better to save the money that’s already been taxed, rather than earn more taxable income.
Oh, of course, it’s always nice to earn more money! But if you are having trouble finding ways to bring in more income…try saving what you already have.
We all need money to survive in today’s world. Money is also necessary for running a homestead.
We need income to pay our monthly housing expenses, property taxes, insurance, health care expenses, fuel, and for anything we can’t grow or make for ourselves.
50+ Ideas to Save Money on Your Homestead
So how do we save money on your homestead? Here are some ideas to get you started toward living better with less…
- Grow a vegetable garden
- Plant perennial fruits and vegetables for harvests every year
- Preserve your harvest
- Save heirloom seeds
- Start your own seedlings in spring
- Make soil blocks or newspaper pots for seed starting
- Compost leaves for seed starting mix
- Forage for free food
- Hunt and fish for your protein
- Use old laying hens for stewing
- Find out how to get free chickens
- Get free wood chips from landscaping companies
- Make compost instead of purchasing fertilizer
- Don’t raise a lot of extra food unless you can sell it for a profit
- Feed kitchen scraps to chickens and pigs
- Cook from scratch instead of buying prepared foods
- Make your own mixes for cakes, cookies, brownies, muffins, pancakes
- Give handmade gifts
- Use old clothing to make quilts, shopping totes, rag rugs, etc.
- Find out how to buy frugal fabric
- Mend tools and clothing instead of buying new
- Raise livestock, such as ducks, on pasture to reduce feed consumption
- Shop at thrift stores, garage sales, and estate sales – take a list of what you need
- Barter goods and services with friends and family
- Reduce energy consumption to save money on utilities
- Can or dehydrate food instead of freezing
- Learn basic skills such as plumbing, carpentry, and medical care for pets and livestock
- Maintain and care for your home, property, tools, and equipment to reduce expensive repair work
- Keep only livestock that will pay for itself
- Purchase feed efficient livestock
- Sell or process extra livestock for meat
- Go to the library instead of purchasing books, DVDs, and CDs
- Use the internet access at the library instead of paying for it at home
- Get rid of cable or Direct TV and play board games, read, or go hiking for entertainment
- Use a ‘Pay as You Go’ cell phone plan and use the phone only for necessities
- Join a rewards program such as Swagbucks to earn gift cards or discounts on necessary purchases
- Only clip coupons for products you would purchase anyway
- Use generics when available
- Purchase foods in season and preserve for later
- Join a buying club, such as Azure Standard, to purchase bulk foods
- Stop wasting food – buy only what you need
- Use a menu plan based on weekly sales to make your grocery list
- Have a movie or game night at home instead of going to the movie theater
- Invite friends over for a potluck dinner rather than going out to dinner
- Purchase prescription eyeglasses online
- Make DIY bath and body products, like this body spray or petroleum-free jelly
- Walk, garden, and work out at home instead of paying for a gym membership
- Quit smoking and eat healthy foods to reduce medical expenses
- Make your own green cleaning products, like this air freshener
- Reuse containers from purchased products instead of buying storage containers
- Make homemade yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, kefir, ice cream, and butter
- Bake your own pizza instead of ordering delivery
- Stop buying soda and sports drinks and try making your own
- Grow sunflower seeds to supplement feed for chickens, goats, and pigs
- Dry your own herbs for loose leaf tea and cooking
Ideas That Save Money on Our Homestead!
These are some of the ways that our family has reduced expenses and learned to live a more frugal lifestyle. We ditched Direct TV and got an Amazon Prime account to stream movies and save on shipping. Our cell phones are not the newest and we use Page Plus Cellular for about $8 per month. I grow much of our food and preserve the extras in summer. Extra eggs from the flock are sold to friends. We don’t buy very much meat and eat a lot of eggs and vegetarian meals to reduce spending.
Not all of these ideas are exclusive to homesteaders! Learn to save money wherever you live and you’ll have more cash to stash away for a rainy day.
Share your ideas for saving money on the homestead, or anywhere, in the comments!
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Great tips! I really needed this reminder to keep looking for ways to save around the home! Thank you!
Happy to share, Angela! I hope you find some tips that help!
So many good tips here! We do most of these things ourselves, but always looking for a reminder/refresher. Such a pretty site! Found you from the Simple Homestead Blog Hop.
Hi Sarita!
Thanks so much for stopping by! I need to get back to the blog hop and check out more of the posts…time is always so limited on the homestead.
Best wishes with saving money on your homestead!